


a new path

by CapriciousCrab



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Established Relationship, Ficlet, Introspection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 12:08:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30021555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CapriciousCrab/pseuds/CapriciousCrab
Summary: He should be tired of packing.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 8
Kudos: 49





	a new path

He should be tired of packing. There are already boxes everywhere- stacked tall in all of the rooms and snaking down the hallway like the tail of some slumbering serpent lying in wait out of view, just waiting for Phil's unsuspecting toes to crash into at any given moment but especially in the middle of the night when he doesn’t have his glasses on and he really needs to fucking pee.

  
  


He can hear Dan playing something that sounds like Space Dementia on the piano. He cocks his head and listens... yes, he really is getting better, he thinks to himself as he sifts through the flotsam of their shared life. He makes tidy piles- keep, maybe, donate- and knows that Dan will come through and ruthlessly pare down Phil's keep pile even more. Phil doesn’t mind; if there’s something he’s determined to keep, he’ll just smuggle it in and deal with Dan’s faux wrath later. They know how to get around each other, after all.

  
  


He hums along to the piano as he works, his mind wandering as he packs and sorts. He laughs when he comes across things from his early years and loses minutes to watching old grainy footage of himself. He thinks about the people he hasn’t spoken to in years and regrets some of the connections he’s had to let go out of necessity. Others he relishes in and sometimes wishes he’d had the courage to cut those ties sooner.

  
  


He dusts off his hands and tapes the top of the box, moving on to the next. He’s moving on autopilot now, thoroughly occupied and his thoughts bouncing from one thing to the next as they so often do. There's still so much to do before the move and yet his mind insists on traveling down the paths of yesterday, dredging up memories of taking on too much work, of stretching himself too thin. He'd bitten off more than he could chew more than a few times, driven himself _and_ Dan to tears with his stubborn insistence that he could do it all… and well, now they were on the other side of all that grinding and sweating and hustling.

  
  


Now they can relax. They can breathe. They can let the offers come to them. Dan can write books. And he himself was free to make videos or do the Stereo thing or work on his other projects whenever he felt like it. It was more freeing than he expected, the weight of what felt like a thousand pounds suddenly lifted from his shoulders. Shoulders he never realized were rounded from the magnitude of responsibilities he carried along with his many titles. Brother. Son. Businessman.

  
  


He can hear Dan moving around in the kitchen now, singing to himself as he makes tea and Phil can't help but smile as he thinks about the other titles they use now.

  
  


Soulmates. Husbands. Homeowners.

  
  


There are still frustrations and set-backs, of course. You can't appreciate the sweetness of life without a bit of the sour, Phil thinks as he packs yet another box, but these frustrations were more of the domestic type. The glacial pace of home construction had taken them both by surprise and trying to live out of boxes in the former filming flat isn't always easy but they're making it work, attuned as ever to each other's need for space and willing to give it as best they can. It's been cozy here, but he'll be glad when they're in the new house, forging a new path toward the future.

  
  


"Phil?"

  
  


"Yeah?"

  
  


"You want coffee or tea?"

  
  


"Coffee, please."

  
  


He should be tired of packing, but he's not. He's ready for the future they've built. Together, their way.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there, it's been a while :)
> 
> Thanks for reading <3


End file.
